The telescopic sight (herein referred to as a “telescope”) is the most popular hand gun accessory. The Picatinny rail, also known as the MIL-STD-1913 rail, was developed at a government arsenal to provide a standard platform for mounting the telescopic sight on large caliber military rifles.
The Picatinny and similar rails have been added to the undersides of hand guns for mounting telescopic sights. A need exists for a single mount for combining the telescopic and other accessories, such as, night vision devices, laser pointers and flashlights on revolvers and semi-automatic hand guns. An optimum single mount would engage a Picatinny type type rail which is a simple and precise means for engaging an accessory.
The Picatinny rail is a double V-slide rail which is divided by transverse spaced apart 0.206 wide grooves on 0.394 centers. The grooves form a series of T-shaped cross-section ridges separated by evenly spaced apart grooves. An accessory is mounted on the rail by slideably engaging the V-slide of the Picatinny rail with the V-grooves of the accessory. A similar rail, known as the Weaver rail is marketed for civilian rifles and hand guns.
The weight of an ideal mount should be low. It should not block a shooter's view of an existing iron sight but should allow for hand gun and accessory differences and not affect the balance of a hand gun.